Letter: Gas investment pay-offs

JUST under 2 per cent of British Gas shareholders hold something in the region of 65 per cent of the shares. These 2 per cent comprise nominee holdings, insurance funds and pension funds. Most of these institutional shareholders (with the honourable exception of Postel) play little or no monitoring role on the corporate behaviour of their investee companies, satisfying themselves when they simply provide adequate returns which allow them to meet their performance benchmarks. As long as institution investors play such a passive role, the rate of increase of senior management remuneration will continue unchecked.